3d-printed facsimiles as classroom primary sources: a comparative review

Abstract

The several methods of 3d printing all contribute manufacturing artefacts, affecting the interpretation of primary sources that might be represented as 3d prints. Such artefacts may be either problematic or useful, depending on how we approach them: in contrast to widespread promises that 3d scanning and printing will make the world's heritage available to everyone, interpretation and pedagogy must allow for the incompleteness of representation. The principles long developed for textual representation (i.e. textual scholarship) offer at least a starting-point for evaluating what a 3d print can tell us about history.